The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Friday, launched Pro Poor and Vulnerable Persons Social Health Insurance in Gwagwalada Area Council of the territory.
Speaking during the launch, the FCT Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Aliyu said the inauguration has once again demonstrated the commitment of the FCT administration toward improving the lives and wellbeing of residents, especially the poor and vulnerable persons in rural communities.
Represented by Mrs Omolola Olanipekun, Acting Secretary of FCT Area Council Service Secretariat, the minister noted that access to qualitative healthcare, especially in hard-to-reach communities, remained a challenge to overcome.
”The FCTA can not afford to have a healthcare insurance system that is affordable to only a few,”she said.
She affirmed that the programme was a strategy for enhancing social inclusion and a demonstration of efforts to bring succour and hope to the poorest of the poor and vulnerable households.
The minister also said the programme was a measure toward ensuring that the FCT attained 100 per cent social health insurance coverage for all residents.
She revealed that the FCT administration had engaged with stakeholders in the health and social services sub-sectors at all levels and developed a blueprint for positively touching the lives of all residents of the FCT, by way of a five-year, 2019 to 2023 strategic plan.
“It is for this reason that we developed a blueprint for positively touching the lives of all the residents of the FCT, by way of a five-year, 2019 to 2023, strategic plan.
” As you may recall, we began the implementation of the plan with the launching of the enrollment of all Area Council employees into the FCT Health Insurance Scheme on Dec. 2, 2019.
” This will increase access to good quality health services, a necessary step toward achieving universal health coverage in the FCT,” Aliyu said.
She said efforts were ongoing to ensure pregnant women and under five year-old children in the FCT were covered by the health insurance scheme to further expand access to good quality and timely health services to these vulnerable groups.
Aliyu, who pledged full commitment to equity funding for the programme to ensure its success, also reiterated the FCTA’s commitment to not only sustaining the programme, but to ensure that the programme was replicated in the remaining five area councils of the territory.
Earlier, the Director, FCT Health Insurance Scheme, Dr Ahmed Danfulani revealed that the enrollees of the programme would enjoy very robust service package, almost equal to the formal sector package, including an opportunity for referral to secondary care facilities and major surgeries.
He also added that residents must not suffer financial hardship as a result of accessing healthcare, stressing that payment for services to facilities would follow same, with the National Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) with basics like capitation and free for services.